*Please check your child's folder for important notices that go home regularly.

* If you have any questions, please email me at: jbiegel@hohokus.org

Important Dates:

10- First Pizza Lunch

13- School Spirit Day - Wear blue & gold or HHK apparel

19- Minimum Day- 12:40 Dismissal

20-Author Visit for K-2 - Christina Geist

Scholastic Book orders due

26- Minimum Day- 12:40 Dismissal

26- Back to School Night, Pre K-4 at 7:00pm

27- Picture Day!

30- Rosh Hashanah- No School

Reading Workshop

Our first reading unit is Building Good Habits. In this unit we will spend time setting up our routines and expectations for Reading Workshop. Our goals for this unit are to build stamina, work independently and confidently, develop a relationship with a partner and become strong, confident readers!

After the initial reading assessments are administered, the students will be reading "just right" books. They will spend time reading independently as well as with a partner who is also reading the same type of "just right" books. The children should also get into the habit of reading for 15-20 minutes outside of school to continue to build their stamina and fluency.

Writing Workshop

Our first writing unit is writing small moment personal narratives. These are true stories about our self, but what makes them "small" is that it is only a small piece of a larger event. We like to use the analogy of a watermelon. The watermelon is the whole vacation to Disney World, but the seed of the watermelon, or small moment, is only one tiny part of that vacation like going on Space Mountain. This can be a difficult task for some as we all have so much to tell about.

The children will learn ways to plan out their stories by thinking of an idea, orally storytelling it across their fingers, across their pages or to their partner, sketching each part and then writing the words. By following these steps, it helps keep the writer focused and ensures that they have enough to write about. Make sure to ask your child frequently what stories they have written in writing workshop!

Mathematics

Welcome to First Grade Everyday Mathematics. It is part of an elementary school mathematics curriculum developed by the University Of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP).

Words Their Way

Our word study and spelling program, Words Their Way, is in progress. Each child has been assessed and put into a group based on their skill level. Each week your child will go through a rotation of activities to help them study the features of their sort. Such activities include, sorting words/pictures according to their feature: closed sort, no peeking sort, partner sort, memory, word hunt, and games.

Science

Our first science unit is Structure, Function and Information Processing. We will be learning about biomimicry; using nature to inspire design. The students will look at nature in many different ways and use their observations to inspire inventions. We will continue to discuss and observe examples of biomimicry through explorations, and use it to solve problems, create designs and inspire inventions!

Social Studies

September’s word of the month is responsibility. As we start the new school year students will learn what it means to become a responsible student. We will discuss how they show responsibility both at home and in school. Students learn how to be a responsible first-grader as they walk through the halls, participate in classroom activities and carry-out classroom jobs. We will practice these skills throughout the day as we learn our classroom routines and begin bringing things back and forth to school. It is such an important character trait for children to learn at an early age and it is best to establish at the beginning of the school year.

“The Ho-Ho-Kus Public School is committed to a high standard of academic excellence in compliance with the
core curriculum content standards in a safe and nurturing environment that will allow students to maximize their
potential and prepare them to be responsible, contributing members of a diverse society.”